Olusegun Olanrewaju
For the nation’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it is a season of ‘double jeopardy’.

This is because the commission, barely months before the 2023 general elections, suffered a double attack as hoodlums burned down the commission’s offices in Ogun and Osun states.

In the Osun theatre of operation by daredevil assailants yesterday, the offices of INEC in Ede South Local Government Area were razed.

Ede is the hometown of Ademola Adeleke, the governor-elect of the state who is at daggers-drawn with incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

An acrimonious legal tussle to upturn the outcome of the July 16, 2022 election in favour of the latter is on at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.

The mayhem that triggered the torching of the INEC office in Osun trails the burning of another INEC office at the Iyana Mortuary in Abeokuta South local government area of Ogun State.

The incident, which happened in the metropolis, took place in the early hours of yesterday.

According to reports, the facility was set on fire by suspected hoodlums who scaled the perimeter fence, jumped into the premises, and set the building on fire from the backyard.

Further reports held that the hoodlums, before the entrance, soaked loaves of bread with petrol and threw some into the building from different points to trigger the fire.

The security guard on duty was said to have made a distress call to the police around 1am, wailing that the facility had been gutted.

Men of the Ibara Police Division reportedly mobilised detectives to the scene, before contacting firefighters who raced to the scene to put out the fire.

The store, registration area officer’s office, as well as conference room were affected by the inferno.

A source said the non-sensitive materials in the premises were also affected by the fire, even though no life was lost.

Rattled by the wanton act of arson in Ede, the spokesman of INEC in Osun State, Oluwaseun Osimosu, confirmed the attack.

Osimosu said the Resident Electoral Commission (REC) in the state, Mutiu Agboke, had gone to the scene of the incident for an on-the-spot assessment, in company with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Ede South local government council area.

In Ogun State, the state Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ogun State, Niyi Ijalaye, confirm the attack on one of its facilities.

He said, “It is correct that our office was set on fire. The police are investigating the matter. I do not know what to say. I’m in shock. We called the police and other security agencies at night. The fire brigade put the situation under control. The level of damage is still being assessed”.

“It is very shocking and untoward. Security agencies are doing their very best. We are meeting again later today to come up with other strategies (toward securing our facilities),” Ijalaye said.

Meanwhile, Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has described the burnt INEC office at Iyana Mortuary in Abeokuta South local government area of the state as a case of arson and called for the police to beef up security across the state.

Bankole disclosed this while he was on inspection of the burnt INEC office.

Others who came with the CP are the Director, Department of State Services (DSS), Femi Aaron, Commandant, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Niyi Ajibola, Amotekun Commander, Dave Akinremi, as well as the INEC REC in Ogun State, Niyi Ijalaye.

Bankole, who described the incident as very sad, said, “This unfortunate incident is no doubt strange to Ogun State, and it is undoubtedly a wake-up call. We shall surely get to the root of the matter. We shall also ensure the security is beefed up across the state.”

Ogun REC, Ijalaye, described the incident in the state as very shocking, saying that the loss suffered was quite colossal.

While speaking with journalists, Ijalaye also said that he could not say anything about the number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) that might have been likely lost to the incident as his staffers are still carrying out an internal investigation to know the extent of the damage.

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*Summons emergency meeting to discuss disturbing issues

In its wider response, INEC has summoned an emergency meeting of an Inter-Agency Cumulative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), to discuss some disturbing issues following the incidents.

The meeting, scheduled for today, was summoned to discuss the recent attacks on the commission’s facilities and the rising incident of attacks on supporters of various political parties since the commencement of the campaign.

For instance, it was reported in the cases of how hoodlums burnt the INEC office in Abeokuta-South, Ogun State, and Oke-Iresi in Ede South local government in Osun State, and some personal properties of the commissioner were reportedly destroyed.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education, Okoye said the attention of the Nigeria Police Force and other security and safety agencies had been informed of the incident and that the force had since commenced an investigation.

INEC lamented, “With just 106 to the 2023 General Election when the commission has commenced the movement of materials to our offices nationwide, these simultaneous attacks are very worrisome indeed.

“Similarly, the rising incidents of attacks on supporters of various political parties since the commencement of campaigns barely two months ago and the use of hate and incendiary language by some politicians are extremely disturbing.

“Accordingly, the Commission has convened an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Cumulative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) Friday (today, November 11, to discuss the disturbing trend.”

Recounting the losses so far in the recent attacks on both Ogun and Osun offices, Okoye disclosed that:

In Ogun State, the main building and all the commission’s movable assets in the office were destroyed, including 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, 30 megaphones, 57 election bags, eight electric power generators, and 65,699 uncollected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

In Osun, the commission stated that the damage in Ede was limited to a section of the building, “and only some furniture items were destroyed”.